Mr Ewen Fraser
Ewen Fraser, the third child in a family of eight, was born on 14 July 1926 on the farm known as Oldtown, in Stratherrick. He received his education at the local school in Errogie, under the watchful eye of Miss Jessie MacGillivray, who was a member in the Free Presbyterian Church. In later life he would express his appreciation for his teacher, believing that her influence on him in those impressionable years was to his spiritual benefit. Progressing from the local school, he went to the Academy in Inverness, but at the age of 14, due to circumstances beyond his control, he left to commence his career in farming. Because his father suffered much from ill health, Ewen was required to commence a life of hard work, taking manly responsibility at this young age.
In 1955 Rev A F MacKay officiated at Ewen’s marriage to Miss Ella MacKenzie in Inverness, after which the newly-weds began life together in Aberchalder, where they remained for eight years. The year after his marriage, Ewen’s father passed away, leaving him with full responsibility for the management of the farm. He worked this farm single-handedly for 20 years, along with another acquired some years later, until his son Kenneth, after attending college, joined his father to continue the family tradition. Although an enthusiastic and hardworking farmer, Ewen maintained certain priorities throughout his life. He knew the importance of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Even with the heavy demands of farming life, he played an active part in maintaining the gospel witness within his local community.
Ewen had a genuine appreciation for the ministers and missionaries of the Free Presbyterian Church. One who was particularly dear to him was Finlay Beaton, the missionary in the Stratherrick congregation until it was raised to the status of a joint sanctioned charge, with Tomatin and Daviot, and Rev Donald John Matheson became, in 1960, the congregation’s first settled minister. Ewen had from childhood attended the services taken by Finlay and felt a strong personal attachment to him, believing his spiritual counsel had made a lasting impression on him. It was in 1966, at the age of 40, that he made a public profession of faith, a profession which he carefully sought to adorn throughout the rest of his life. In 1970, along with William MacQueen and James MacPherson, he was ordained to the eldership, to become a diligent and reliable helper to Rev Alexander McPherson, who was by then the minister of the congregation.
Although Ewen did not consider himself to be a gifted public speaker, he sought prayerfully to use the ability God had given him. Consistent with his character, he took very seriously the matter of conducting public worship in the absence of the minister. This solemn duty weighed upon his spirit and thus he humbly looked to his Lord and Saviour for grace to enable him to fulfil it. Throughout the pastoral vacancies in the congregation which occurred during the period of his eldership, he often had to read two sermons each Sabbath; thus his Saturdays were regularly spent seeking out and preparing suitable material for the edification of the congregation. Those who knew him best could testify to his faithful and devoted service in this respect over many years. Without complaint, he did his duty; yet he would gladly step aside if someone else was present, whom he would almost inevitably consider more capable than himself.
Recognised as a humble, gracious and peace-loving man, he was, when duty required it, firm and decisive on the side of the truth. Serving as an elder in the higher courts of the Church on numerous occasions over the years, he always consciously endeavoured to do what he believed was right and just among his brethren. The records of the Northern Presbytery testify to his diligent attendance at its meetings, where his fellow-presbyters regarded him highly for his gracious and meek disposition towards all his brethren, even when inevitable disagreements took place. Of a warm and sunny disposition, his company was greatly appreciated among the Lord’s people, and he delighted to be in their company. It was always a pleasure to be in his home. At communion times he and his devoted wife welcomed the Lord’s people to their hospitable table with genuine Christian affection.
To the end of his life, even when it became more difficult for him to communicate with visiting friends, Ewen Fraser retained a lively interest in the Lord’s cause. He was always delighted to have the ministers of the Church visit him during his final years when he was a resident in High View Care Home, in Inverness. Although unable to attend any services in the church, it was obvious from his limited responses, that his mind and heart were at the public means of grace, particularly at the time of the local communions. As long as he was able to join in, he made his contribution to the praise in worship. He loved the Metrical Psalms and took every opportunity to join in singing them with family and friends.
The older generation in the church remember Ewen as a competent precentor, whose services were called for continually at the various communions he attended. He is also fondly remembered for his brief but pertinent remarks at the fellowship meetings he attended. His experience of rural and farming life supplied him with numerous illustrations, which he made use of on such occasions, to help and encourage the Lord’s people.
Ewen’s work and witness, however, came to its appointed end in this world on 17 September 2010, when he was called to his eternal home. Those who knew and loved him in the Lord felt the loss deeply. But we have reason to believe that Ewen Fraser, through the grace that was given to him, now sings with a sweeter voice in glory the praise of the One who loved him as a poor sinner with an everlasting love and redeemed him with His own blood. “The memory of the just is blessed” (Prov 10:7). Our prayer is that Ewen Fraser’s children and grandchildren, with many others who knew him, will by grace follow in his footsteps.
(Rev) G G Hutton
Miss Janet Morrison
The passing of Miss Janet Morrison at the ripe age of 94 has left a large void in the Ness congregation and in the wider Church of Christ. She was one of the last in these parts whose transparent spirituality and godliness brought to mind the accounts we read of believers in times when the gospel flourished in Scotland.
Janet Morrison was born at 7 Habost, Ness, on 6 January 1918. Her father, John Morrison, was a highly-esteemed elder in the local Free Presbyterian congregation. One of Janet’s aunts served in the manse of Rev Duncan MacBeath, the Free Church minister of Ness from 1879 to 1891, during the time leading up to the crisis which resulted in the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church. Janet often told us of Mr MacBeath’s words to her aunt at that time, which in translation might be rendered, “There is a storm approaching, the clouds are thickening and a division is to take place. And though only two should leave the Church, you see that you be one of them.”
Growing up in a godly home, in a community where the gospel was, to a large extent, still flourishing, was a great privilege but not enough to turn Janet’s unregenerate heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither was the death of her two parents in her teenage years instrumental in effecting the great change. Nor was the edifying ministry of Rev Roderick Mackenzie blessed to her conversion when she had opportunity to sit occasionally under his preaching during a period while she worked in domestic service in the Glasgow area. Even a great providential deliverance did not bring her to know the way of salvation personally.
This particular deliverance occurred while she was working in a hotel in Nairn around 1946. One night, while she was upstairs in a garret, a fire broke out. The only way to escape was to go up onto the roof, which she managed to do along with one or two other young women who also worked there. A young Irish woman was tragically killed when she jumped off the roof in desperation. A great sheet of flames which threatened to consume them there and then brought Janet to exclaim, “This is the beginning of a lost eternity”. They joined in a huddle and Janet tried to pray that the Lord would have mercy and deliver them. Soon firemen were able to lift them off the roof and the building collapsed in less than five minutes. She spoke in awe – and with tears – in connection with this terrible experience; yet even such an event was not the means of bringing her under a true spiritual awakening. She recalled being for a considerable period more thankful to the fireman who delivered her from the inferno than she was to the One who answered her distressed cry.
The time came however when the Lord Himself plucked her as a brand from the fire of His wrath and delivered her soul from spiritual and eternal death by His stretched-out arm and mighty power. This work began while she was working in Toronto, Canada, in the late 1940s or early 1950s. There being no Free Presbyterian services in Toronto at that point, she attended the Free Church congregation in the city along with her sisters and happened to hear a minister preaching on the words: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me” (Jn 12:32). It was from this point that she began hearing the Word of God with an attentiveness she never had before. Janet never heard the man preach again, never knew his name, but understood that he was passing through Ontario on his way to the west of Canada at the time. “He must needs go through Samaria.” Rev John MacSween was in Toronto during this period, and Janet enjoyed listening to that godly man expounding the Word of life, before he returned to Point in the Isle of Lewis.
Having returned to Lewis herself, Janet worked as a cook in a care home in Stornoway. It is not quite clear when she received a measure of spiritual liberty, as she was ever reticent about herself in conversation; nevertheless she was enabled to profess faith in Christ at the Ness communion in October 1961. She recalled that it was under a sermon by Rev Fraser Macdonald, then in North Tolsta, on the Saturday of the communion season that the way was opened up for her to go forward with the children of Israel. Mr Macdonald, she said, quoted every portion of truth in the Bible that was precious to her, including the words, “Ye are bought with a price” (1 Cor 6:20). This greatly encouraged her, so that she was constrained by the love of Christ to do her duty in remembering His death till He come. Grace enabled her to remain a consistent and conspicuous witness on the side of Christ for over 50 years in this world.
A strong woman in mind and body, Janet was forthright and zealous to defend Christ’s truth and His cause. She was not afraid to rebuke sin – especially in the professing Church – yet she felt the sin of her own heart to be the greatest plague of all. She was greatly grieved by the lowering of standards in the Churches round about and did not hide her opinions. Yet, though she was generally grave in demeanour, we have never met a more tender-hearted Christian, one whom we have frequently seen in tears for the people of this generation, for the young, for the state of the Church and, especially, for the sufferings of Christ on her behalf. She had a deep knowledge of the Bible, and her grasp of its doctrines and precepts was both intelligent and tenacious. Often, when taking worship with her, we observed how she knew the Book of Psalms so intimately, even the less well-known parts. In her later years she would regularly spend large portions of the night reciting and singing the Psalms when unable to sleep.
We believe also that she was a woman much given to secret prayer. She recalled the prayers of the older Christians in Lewis with admiration and how they frequently began their petitions with the words, “O gun cuireadh Tu fiamh do mhòrachd air ar spioradaibh” (O that Thou wouldst put the awe of Thy majesty upon our spirits).
Janet Morrison came from a modest background, yet the Lord prospered her family in material things by blessing their industry and diligence. This enabled her to become a most generous contributor to the Lord’s cause and work, at home and in Africa. Janet had friends in the bonds of the gospel in four continents and was one who prayed fervently in the faith that the whole earth shall yet be “filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”. She was one who exhibited much godly contentment with and reconciliation to the Lord’s will during times of trial and, latterly, of great physical pain. When she discovered her only brother dead in tragic circumstances she was enabled to bear the heavy blow with great dignity and remarked, “Tha an Tighearna ceart na uile shlighean, agus naomh na uile ghniomharan” (The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works) (Ps 145:17).
Last year she was much impressed with the words in Psalm 127, “So He giveth His beloved sleep”, given to her at the very time another godly friend entered eternity. When the time came for Janet herself she was ready to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. She suffered a stroke in February 2012 and died on March 20 in the Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway.
On one of the last occasions the present writer had the privilege of her company, she remarked that she had been thinking much on the gold of the Old Testament temple and how it represented the holy purity and heavenly glory of God in the sacred things of His worship. She added that she failed to understand how men could seek to introduce elements into Divine worship that were not warranted by God’s inspired Word. It is a great consolation to us to think that her soul is now seeing the uncreated gold of the Divine glory of Christ in the “greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands”, where “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth”. Shortly before passing over the Jordan she remarked, with characteristic vigour, “Chan eil am firean a’ bâsachadh ann” (The righteous never die), and thus indicated that her portion would be among those who “overcame . . . by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev 12:11). May the Lord raise up those who would follow the Saviour as consistently as Janet Morrison did.
(Rev) A W MacColl